Keep that crazy appetite 🍴
Good morning Income Flipper,
25 years ago I helped start a tech sales recruiting business called CMI.
I was a recent college graduate from America University with a Psych degree and a burning desire to build something.
My best friend Brock had recently launched the business after a sales manager he met at a bar, (back when we were young, single and ready to mingle) offered him 3K to find an entry-level salesperson.
Somehow I convinced him to take me on as a partner to help him grow and scale the business. I think he took pity on me but he also knew from our wrestling days that I had a crazy hard work ethic.
It was just the two of us for about a year and then we brought on Scott as a third partner soon after.
Scott was what I would call an Elephant Hunter, while Brock and I made a lot of placements, Scott would focus on the big deals. He would make 1/2 as many placements but always seem to find a way to match our production, which I always thought was interesting but never gave much thought to until later in life (read on to learn why).
When 9/11 happened, and as the tech space started crumbling from the dotcom implosion, Scott along with his wife Lisa, decided that they would go "all in" on a side hustle they had been working on—flipping houses.
The truth was I was jealous as hell when he left.
My wife and I had also been buying rentals as part-time investors but I didn't feel like I could leave my best friend or the business during the tech meltdown.
After all, what kind of friend and business partner would I be if I left when things got hard?
Scott didn't have the history that Brock and I had (best friends since high school) and so when he left we didn't fault him. The market was hard as hell and it was obvious that 9/11 really affected him and made him re-evaluate what was important.
So for the next 3 1/2 years, we worked hard to stabilize the business, and my wife and I continued to buy rentals as part-time investors. I watch from the sidelines as Scott and Lisa grew from wholesalers to rehabbers to luxury homebuilders.
It wasn't until the summer of 2005 that I finally approached Brock to buy me out of the recruiting business. By this time Scott and Lisa had built a strong brand in their target market and were starting to come into their own as investors. That's when I had a conversation with him that would stick with me for the next 20 years...
He said, "I want to keep it small and keep it all."
Those words have echoed in my head over the years, usually when things get hard and complicated in my pursuit of fulfilling my vision.
The internal dialogue goes something like this:
"Damn this is hard, maybe I should just keep it small and keep it all" followed by.....
"Get that small talk out of your head, you're not wired that way, you're wired for growth and growth is what keeps you excited and in the game!"
Today, Scott and his wife Lisa own a portfolio of commercial properties across 6 states and I recently reminded him of that conversation. I shared with him how his words come to mind in those quiet moments when things are hard and the seeds of doubt creep in and this is what he had to say...
"I go back and forth between “keep it small and keep it all.” I think for me the saying is now more “how can we best leverage our time while still growing the portfolio and learning more along the way.”
I want to keep growing the rental portfolio to heights we never could have envisioned 20 yrs ago."
Remember how I said that Scott was an Elephant Hunter? Over time, that has shown up in his real estate business because the projects he buys keep getting bigger and bigger!
He has learned to leverage his time and expand his portfolio by buying larger assets. Also, I never interpreted Scott's message to be that he wanted a small business but instead a business free from lots of employees and complexity.
He ended the conversation by saying, "Keep that crazy appetite!"
As real estate entrepreneurs we are either growing or we are dying.
The truth is, what Scott and I have learned through the years is that you can't keep it small and keep it all. Business and life have a way of taking things away when you get too comfortable.
All you have to do is reflect on some key areas of your life to know it's true:
Your health—it only improves when do hard things. Get too comfortable for too long and you wake up not recognizing the person in the mirror.
Your relationships—they only grow when they are nurtured and cared for. Take your friends for granted and watch them fade away.
Your business—it only expands to the extent that you do as a leader. If you're not learning and growing the market will eat you alive.
Your faith—only deepens when you're tested. It's one thing to be loving when it's easy and another to show love when someone hurts you.
Your wealth—it only increases when you invest and grow it. If you play it safe and keep it in the bank you are going backwards financially.
Your marriage—only last if you dream and grow together. Being comfortable in your marriage will eventually catch up with you.
None of these are accomplished by thinking or acting small.
More importantly, there is no joy in keeping it all.
Joy happens by giving, whether it's your time, energy, money, friendship, or love.
So the lesson is this...
GROW.
Grow as big as you dare to dream and know that your vision will expand on the journey.
The world is not served by you living small.
So what can you do to live a big life?
One thing you can do is create your vivid vision.
Create Your Vivid Vision Exercise ✏️
Cameron Herold the founder of 1-2-3 Junk learned a system from an Olympic Coach that he took into his business and he attributes as the main reason for his success.
Essentially, you are writing out what your business looks like 3 years from now, from marketing to how the customer is treated to how the phones are answered.
In essence, you are writing out everything you see as an entrepreneur in your mind.
You then get a writer and graphic designer to put this into a storybook format which you then hand out to everyone in the company.
The goal is to create a clear vision so that you can share it with everyone in and out of the organization.
Here are 3 mistakes some people make when they do this:
They go out too far into the future. 1-2 years is too close to your current reality and more than 3 years is too far out.
They create a dream board but a dream board leaves too much room for interpretation. It's critical you write it out.
They don't share it. The vivid vision is meant to be shared with everyone from team members to vendors to new recruits.
So, in an effort to practice what I preach, I plan on finishing up my vivid vision and sharing it with all of you in the coming months.
In the meantime, take action today and get to work on your vivid vision.
Here is a great interview with Cameron Herald that describes the process in detail.
Keep Moving Forward,
Rob
P.S. Breaking news! Are you an agent who currently works with investors? This week I launched the Agent-Investor Referral Network (Powered by GRID) on Facebook. I invite you to join me and thousands of agent-investors across the country.
